We survived the night in our hotel. No one came by to bug us. We did hear some ruckus in the night, but not nearly as bad as earlier in the evening. We got up around 11:00am Spain time (9:00 am Moroccan Time). We ate breakfast which was very yummy. It was baked goods, hard boiled eggs, and tea. Our waiters had us sit in the room with the oceanview. It was a nice start to our day. We got ready and finished packing since we had to be in the lobby to wait for our minibus by 11:30 local time [View Full Entry]

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Last night we slept well in the hostel. We got up at 7:30, got ready, repacked, and walked to the ferry terminal. Things went smoothly at the terminal. We had a rocky crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar. It took about 45 minutes to cross and things were a bit confusing when getting off. We had a sticker that only a dozen others had as part of a tour organized through the ferry. We had our own guide but were combined with another large tour group for part of the tour. The first part of our tour was by bus going [View Full Entry]

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This morning was hectic. Once again we had laundry issues. Since the clothes didn´t dry yesterday and it rained overnight, they were not going to dry by air before our bus was to leave for Algerciras. We took our clothes next door to the coach´s house to use their dryer. However, they left their house after our clothes were in. By 10:15, we were starting to get quite nervous since nobody had returned. Erick had to run around to find a way to get into the house. We didn´t get our laundry out until 10:30 and our bus left at 11:00. [View Full Entry]

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We planned to go to Granada for the day. However, due to factors beyond our control, we did not. Instead, we decided to walk around the city of Amuñecar for the day and run errands. We woke up early, but the boys were still asleep. We have decided that our motto for the trip is going to be, ¨When in Rome, do as the Romans do¨. So in this spirit, we hung up our clothes that were in the dryer and then slept in late since we had been up late the night before. We have made an important and difficult [View Full Entry]

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Our cankles are gone! We can actually see our ankle bones again. We slept late today to make up for our bad night's sleep on the train. We then got ready and "taxied" via moped to the beach (Playa de Tesorillo) and sunbathed for a couple of hours. When the sun started to go down in the sky and it got breezier, we went climbing on the rocks at the beach. It is a very rocky coast with lots of jagged rocks, cliffs, and rocky hills. From the rocks we could see some beaches with black sand. We have never been [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up the exact opposite of refreshed. We slept poorly in our seats all night because we kept waking up to find a new less uncomfortable position. We have also grown cankles (calf-ankles) over night. We attribute this to the fact that we climbed a mountain yesterday which caused them to swell and also sleeping upright on the train all night so that the blood wasn't able to flow easily. We were able to get our bags down with less trouble than we had anticipated. We left the train and went in search of a bus that would take [View Full Entry]

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Last night we stayed in our first hostel after departing Rochester 20 days ago. We were pampered at Beth's house and then we were pampered on the cruise ship. This staying in hostels business will take some getting used to. The hostel had a very laid back atmosphere. We talked to a girl from Montreal a bit, but other than that we pretty much kept to ourselves. Our hostel owner's name was Hugo. He is originally from Chile and is very nice. Even though check out time is at 11:00 am, we were allowed to come back after that to use [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up at 7:00. We were supposed to be off the ship at 9:30 and we still had packing to do. After the difficult process of packing, we have decided that another box of things will be sent home to lighten our load. Kim says Christine can have as much as she is willing to carry (Christine has more than Kim). Well, Christine does not want to carry anything anymore. When we got off the ship, there were no customs agents, no passport stamping, and no security. We walked into the parking lot, got on a bus to the [View Full Entry]

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Today Christine celebrated her 23rd birthday. We met Christina and Dom for breakfast. Once the boat anchored, we visited Villefranche with Christina and Miguel. We had to tender to shore again using lifeboats. It was a gorgeous port surrounded by tree covered mountains and beautiful homes looking over the harbor. The buildings were colorful and the water was turquoise. We considered leaving the port, but taking the train to Monaco or Nice would have taken too long plus Miguel and Christina had to be back at 2 for work and also Miguel couldn't leave the port because of passport regulations for [View Full Entry]

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Today we woke up at 6:30 to get ready for another tour. Our ship was not able to dock in Livorno as early as planned, so the people going on excursions all had to be dismissed late. This caused quite the commotion and confusion. Everything took place about one hour late, but we were given an extra hour at the port since our next port of call isn't too far away. Our tour took us to Pisa. We went to Miracle Square (Piazza dei Miracoli), a medieval square that contains Pisa's Leaning Tower (bell tower), Cathedral, Baptistery, and Churchyard. After a [View Full Entry]

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